Bisping to face Gastelum at UFC Shanghai

A former UFC middleweight champion isn’t sitting around and licking his wounds after losing his title.

Michael Bisping has agreed to face Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC’s Fight Pass-only card on Saturday, Nov. 25, in Shanghai, China. The news, which was first reported by Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, comes a week after Bisping lost the UFC middleweight title to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 217 on Nov. 4.

Bisping will replace Anderson Silva, who was pulled from the card after he was notified of a potential doping violation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which administers drug testing to fighters for the UFC. That was Silva’s second potential violation – the first of which came in 2015 after his victory over Nick Diaz. Silva was suspended for one year and fined $380,000 for that violation.

Gastelum (14-3) is coming off a submission loss to former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in July. A win over the former champion Bisping would likely give Gastelum a strong case to be considered for a title shot against the new champion in St. Pierre. However, St. Pierre has said he is unsure if he will fight the interim UFC middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, as he is contractually obligated to do, or if he will retire.

Chris Huntemann writes about mixed martial arts in the state of Maryland. He also opines on all things UFC, Bellator, World Series of Fighting and any other MMA topics he cares to bloviate about. You should check out his blog, or his Twitter. Or both. When he's not watching MMA, he's an avid fan of other sports, such as football, baseball and college basketball. He may or may not do other, non-sports-related things as well.